Terminal-transfer-cost chart



E. vC. TAYLOR.

TERMINAL TRANSFER COST CHART.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 29,1916. -RENEwEn JULY 23. |92o.

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Quoi/neas UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcjE.

' EDWARD C. TAYLOR, 0F ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.

,A TERmTNAL-'TRANsFER-cosr CHART.

Patented Mar. 1, 1921.

Application led. -T11-1y 29, 1916,' Serial No. 112,026. Renewed July23,` 19.20. Serial No.`398,544.

This invention relates to terminal transfer cost systems and refers moreparticularly to a new and improved arrangementet1 charts or analysissheets in which an entlre city terminal of a railroad or a plurality of'railroads is divided up into units of move# ments and operations so thatthe cost of `movement of cars between any two points can be determinedby adding together the costs of the units of movement of all operationswhich normally take place as a part of` the complete operation ofmovingbetween these. two points.' l'

Heretofore attempts have been made to devise charts ,or analysis sheetsby which the user could determine the cost per car. of handling all carsin and through a given city terminal.l However these charts or analysislsheets were vbased upon the complete-'cost from one point to anotherirre-v spective of the number of movements that the car went through in`movlng between these two separated points, or at least recognizing thenumber of vsuch movements 'as' only slightly indicativev of the timeconsumed o1' of thecost of handling. As a matter of-'act the completemovement of a car is "found to'be made'up of aseries of distinctsubmovements, each of which involve cars whose destinations perhaps aredi'erent but whose cost of handling during the time each is associatedwith the car under discussion is the. samegas the cost for the latter. l

' The present invention'contemplates an arrangement in which .the costof all ofthese `successive distinctive submovements isiindependentlylisted and the cost between any two points in the terminal is the sum ofthe units involved. Thus in the terminals of one city it was Apossiblelwith a chart or car will move' through a number of other yards in thesame train with certain other cars. The train will then be broken up andthe car under consideration becomes a part of another train during partof the remainder of its movement.

In the previous attempts 'to determine the i cost of switching cars fromone point in the termlnal to another point in the terminal a vlist wasmade of all of the complete movements of cars between these two pointsduring the test period. Assignment of expenses were made to thesecomplete movements in various ways and on various bases such as lthetime required for the complete move-v ment, the length of the completemovement, the number of dierent engines handling vthe car, etc. Each ofthese above mentioned methods in the same situation would -pro- 'duce'dil'erentcosts so that manifestly no one could be entirely reliable. Thecombinations of these methods were Vtried but `were so dificultto handleinasmuch as the vmovements whose costs were deslred were through 1n"moving between these two points can be listed in the terms of the unitsshown on the chart'or analysis sheet.

In the drawings: p Figure l is a plan view of the chart o'r analysissheet;

Fig. 2 isa view showing thev use of theunits in computing movementsbetween any' two points; y Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view illustratingthe movement of six cars. y

'In the general summary or analysis sheet shown in Fig. 1the charactersor symbols A, B, C, etc., indicate the various operations and in thecolumn opposite thse there are listed the total operating expenses percar for each 'particular movement or' operation. Thus the handlinin'Martin ard, which is represented by `t e symbol costs 52.08 centswhile the movement from Thor street to Doan yard, which is indicated bythe symbol B, cost 62.30 cents and the movement of a car from Oak streetto Elm street, which is designated by the symbol AA, costs 71.14 cents,these costs being determined by a test period in which a record is keptof all ears having this particular unit of operation, each of thesesub-movements being listed in the maximum size that allcars handledtherein, even though their ultimate destinations should be different,are equally likely to be handled at the same average cost.

In order to make more clear what the symbols A, B, AA, etc., s tand for,the partlcular operations which these symbols represent have been'written in. Also in'Fig. 2 three of the cars shown in the diagrammaticview street (indicated by the symbol W) move together until they reachMartin yard, the handling in which is indicated by the'symbol A. Herethey meet cars 2, 4, 5 and 6 which have started at other yards and havegone throughv the various movementsl or operations indicated by thesymbols AI, Z, AD, etc. At Martin yard the train is broken up and thevarious cars sorted out into new trainsso that car 1 completes itsjourney with car No. 2 to East Jones yard (indicated by the symbol I)while car No. 3 goes with car No. 6 in a different train to Adams yard(indicated by the symbol G) where it is separated from the latter andcontinues with other cars not under con sideration to the North Jonesyard (indicated by symbol O). Cars Nos. 4 and 5, however, 'continuetogether from Martin yard to Smith Street yard (indicated by symbol F)and their movement would be `represent- .cal movements between twoimtely the same cost.

as contemplated by my invention the movements of any cars in theterminals can be.

listed in the terms of the units shown on the analysis sheet. It istherefore only necessary for the -user to find out either from` recordsor from information obtained from some one in the yards the movement ofa car between any two points in the city terminals. He can thendetermine by reference Vto.' the chart the cost of moving such a car.'Attention is particularly called to the-fact th'at these units representoperations such as breaking up the train as well as geographipoints.

The invention is not limited to the particular movements or operationslisted but relates broadly to the provision of achart oran'alysissheetin which all the movements between any two points in thedistrict are divided up into unitsv of such size that all cars handledtherein are handled at approx- And the invention also contemplates incombination there\vitl1, a cost sheet for the various movements havingstated thereon in the units of the chart, all sub-movements between thepoints under consideration. l

-What I claim asmy invention is:

A `r'ailway'terminal movement cost chart comprising an independentlistingy of characters indicative of all the distinct submovementsbetween any two points in the entire terminal district covered by thechart, the submovements being listed in the maximumsize that'all carshandled therein irrespective of the nature of the complete movement ofsuch cars are'equally likely to be handled at `the same average cost,and having arranged in appropriately designated'- spaces associated withsaid characters the `cost of the movement indicated in figures basedupon the average ycost of cars making

